– three remanded
ESSEQUIBO Magistrate Ms. Faith Mc Gusty has remanded three men to prison on Monday at the Suddie Magistrate court for allegedly brutally gang raping a 46-year-old Amerindian mother of six children Tuesday night last week while she was going home in the Onderneeming housing scheme. Speaking to this newspaper, the victim said she was attacked on a lonely stretch of the road in a forested area that leads to the Lil Red village.

According to the victim said she was returning home Tuesday night at around 20:00 h after spending the Christmas holiday with her sister when she was attacked by the three men, two of whom were masked and had guns.

She recalled that she was singing gospel whilst she was walking the road in the bright moon light when she heard a loud noise a short distance away. Upon inquiring, she saw the three men beating a man she knew as Jailall and shouted on them to stop.

She said the men saw her and immediately two of them rushed towards her and pointed guns at her. According to her, they grabbed her around the waist and ordered her to go into the bush. She said the other man, who was not masked and whom she recognised as an East Indian, brought the man they were beating in the bush also.

With guns pointed at her, the men ordered her to strip off her clothes while the “old man” known as Jailall was forced to lie face down in the sand.

She said two of the men ganged raped her several times.

She said she got up shortly in pain and searched for her clothes and then went home. She reported the matter the next day at the Suddie Police station.

According to the woman, the police responded promptly and arrested some twenty men. Three were placed before the court on Monday after investigations by the officers.

Two of the three persons remanded are 16 year old – Orlando Severien and Satesh Singh – and the third person is 27-year-old Errol Ramrattan all of the Onderneeming housing scheme.

This newspaper was informed that many young men in the village are using illicit drugs and are a threat to decent citizens and women in the village, in the heart of the interior, in the vast Onderneeming housing scheme. The matter is currently engaging the attention of the Amerindian and Hinterland Department of the Region Two administration.

The rape victim said scores of residents from Suddie and other villages across the coast have visited her to offer their comfort and support. She said she can’t sleep at nights and is worried about contracting HIV/AIDS.
She told the Chronicle she is afraid to go back to her village because she has been threatened by relatives of the men who are remanded in prison.